News of the World phone hacking affair

The News International phone-hacking scandal is an ongoing controversy involving mainly the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...

but also other British tabloid newspapers published by News International

News International

News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....

, a subsidiary of News Corporation

News Corporation

News Corporation or News Corp. is an American multinational media conglomerate. It is the world's second-largest media conglomerate as of 2011 in terms of revenue, and the world's third largest in entertainment as of 2009, although the BBC remains the world's largest broadcaster...

. Employees of the newspaper were accused of engaging in phone hacking

Phone hacking

Phone hacking is a term used to describe the practice of intercepting telephone calls or voicemail messages, often by accessing the voicemail messages of a mobile phone without the consent of the phone's owner...

, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of publishing stories. Investigations conducted from 2005–2007 concluded that the paper's phone hacking activities were limited to celebrities, politicians and members of the British Royal Family

British Royal Family

The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...

. However, in July 2011, it was revealed that the phones of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, relatives of deceased British soldiers, and victims of the 7/7 London bombings

7 July 2005 London bombings

The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....

were also accessed, resulting in a public outcry against News Corporation and owner Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch

Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

. Advertiser boycotts contributed to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July, ending 168 years of publication.

British prime minister David Cameron

David Cameron

David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....

announced on 6 July 2011 that a public inquiry would look into the affair after police investigations had ended. On 13 July 2011, Cameron named Lord Justice Leveson

Brian Leveson

Brian Henry Leveson QC , previously styled as the Honourable Mr Justice Leveson, now styled as the Right Honourable Lord Justice Leveson, is an English Judge, a Lord Justice of Appeal for England and Wales and, since 2010, head of the Sentencing Council for England and Wales.It was announced on 13...

as chairman of the inquiry, with a remit to look into phone hacking and police bribery

Police corruption

Police corruption is a specific form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial benefits, other personal gain, or career advancement for a police officer or officers in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest....

by the News of the World, while a separate inquiry would consider the culture and ethics of the wider British media. He also said the Press Complaints Commission

Press Complaints Commission

The Press Complaints Commission is a voluntary regulatory body for British printed newspapers and magazines, consisting of representatives of the major publishers. The PCC is funded by the annual levy it charges newspapers and magazines...

would be replaced "entirely". The inquiries led to several high-profile resignations, including Dow Jones chief executive Les Hinton

Les Hinton

Leslie Frank "Les" Hinton is a British-American journalist and businessman. Hinton, born in the UK, became a United States citizen in 1986. He was appointed CEO of Dow Jones & Company in December 2007, after its acquisition by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation...

; News International legal manager Tom Crone

Tom Crone

Tom Crone is a British barrister, last working for News International as Legal Affiars manager, before he resigned during the News International phone hacking scandal.-Career:...

; and chief executive Rebekah Brooks. The commissioner

Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis

The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service, classing the holder as a chief police officer...

of London's Metropolitan Police Service

Metropolitan Police Service

The Metropolitan Police Service is the territorial police force responsible for Greater London, excluding the "square mile" of the City of London which is the responsibility of the City of London Police...

, Sir Paul Stephenson

Paul Stephenson (police officer)

Sir Paul Robert Stephenson, QPM was the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, 2009-2011, the most senior police officer within the United Kingdom....

, also resigned his post. Former News of the World managing editor Andy Coulson

Andy Coulson

Andrew Edward Coulson is an English journalist and political strategist.Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.He subsequently joined David Cameron's...

, former executive editor Neil Wallis

Neil Wallis

Neil John Wallis is a former newspaper editor in the United Kingdom.-Early life:Wallis was born in Lincolnshire. He attended Skegness Grammar School.-Journalism:...

, and Brooks were all arrested. Murdoch and his son, James

James Murdoch (media executive)

James Rupert Jacob Murdoch is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and currently serves as chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, Europe, and Asia, overseeing assets such as News International , SKY Italia , Sky Deutschland, and STAR TV .He sits on the News...

, were summoned

Summons

Legally, a summons is a legal document issued by a court or by an administrative agency of government for various purposes.-Judicial summons:...

to give evidence before a parliamentary media committee.

The negative attention garnered by the scandal eventually reached the United States

News Corporation scandal

The News Corporation scandal developed in mid-2011 out of a series of investigations following up the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal of 2005–2007...

, where News Corporation is headquartered and operates multiple media outlets. The Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

launched a probe on 14 July 2011 to determine whether News Corporation accessed voicemails of victims of the 9/11 attacks. On 15 July, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder

Eric Holder

Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. is the 82nd and current Attorney General of the United States and the first African American to hold the position, serving under President Barack Obama....

announced an additional investigation by the Department of Justice

United States Department of Justice

The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

, looking into whether the company had violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 is a United States federal law known primarily for two of its main provisions, one that addresses accounting transparency requirements under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and another concerning bribery of foreign officials.- Provisions and scope...

Background

In January 2003, Andy Coulson

Andy Coulson

took over as editor of the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...

following the move of editor Rebekah Brooks (then known as Rebekah Wade) to sister paper The Sun. Brooks had been News of the World editor since May 2000, during which time allegations would later surface that the tabloid accessed the voicemail of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. Later in 2003, Brooks and Coulson appeared before a parliamentary committee, where Brooks admitted to paying police for information.

In 2005 U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) today wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales after a small New Jersey marketing company called FLOORgraphics alleged that News America Marketing engaged in illegal computer espionage by breaking into password protected computer systems and obtaining confidential information.

In August 2006, Clive Goodman

Clive Goodman

Clive Goodman is a former royal editor and reporter for the News of the World. He was arrested in August 2006 and jailed in January 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messages involving members of the Royal Household.Goodman initially worked as a journalist on Nigel Dempster's gossip column in the...

, royal editor at the News of the World, and his associate Glenn Mulcaire

Glenn Mulcaire

Glenn Mulcaire, born September 8, 1970, is a former professional footballer, latterly a private investigator. He has been closely associated with the News International phone hacking scandal. In January 2007 he was found guilty of illegally intercepting phone messages from Clarence House and...

, a private investigator, were arrested over allegations of phone hacking

Phone hacking

made by the British Royal Family

British Royal Family

in 2005. Goodman and Mulcaire were subsequently charged; they pleaded guilty and were imprisoned on 26 January 2007, for four and six months, respectively. The paper's editor Andy Coulson resigned while insisting that he had no knowledge of any illegal activities. In March of that year, a senior aide to Rupert Murdoch told a parliamentary committee that a "rigorous internal investigation" found no evidence of widespread hacking at the News of the World; two months later the Press Complaints Commission

Press Complaints Commission

exonerated the paper in a report on phone hacking.

After Goodman and Mulcaire pleaded guilty, a breach of privacy claim was started by Gordon Taylor, Chief Executive of the Professional Footballers Association who was represented by his solicitor Mark Lewis. That claim settled for a payment of £700,000 including legal costs. James Murdoch agreed with the settlement.

In 2009, and 2010, further revelations emerged regarding the extent of the phone hacking and the number of News of the World employees who may have been aware of the practices. By March 2010, the paper had spent over £2 million settling court cases with victims of phone hacking. In July 2009, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

made a series of allegations of wider phone hacking activities at the News of the World newspaper, that were aimed at other individuals, including television presenter Chris Tarrant

Chris Tarrant

Christopher John "Chris" Tarrant, OBE is an English radio and television broadcaster, now best known for hosting the first version of the television game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in the United Kingdom and later Ireland, as the two national versions of the show merged in 2002.Chris...

.

This led to several prominent figures who were covertly snooped upon bringing legal action against the News of the World owner and Mulcaire. Amongst those who began legal action were Tarrant, football agent Sky Andrew

Sky Andrew

Skylet Andrew , is English former Olympic and Commonwealth Games table tennis player for Great Britain, who was the first Black British sports agent.-Biography:...

, actors Sienna Miller

Sienna Miller

Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...

and Steve Coogan

Steve Coogan

Stephen John "Steve" Coogan is a British comedian, actor, writer and producer. Born in Manchester, he began his career as a standup comedian and impressionist, working as a voice artist throughout the 1980s on satirical puppet show Spitting Image. In the early nineties, Coogan began creating...

, and sports presenter Andy Gray.

2005–2006: Royal phone hacking scandal

On 13 November 2005, News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...

published an article written by royal editor Clive Goodman

Clive Goodman

, claiming that Prince William was in the process of borrowing a portable editing suite from ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

royal correspondent Tom Bradby. Following the publication, the Prince and Bradby met to try to figure out how the details of their arrangement had been leaked, as only two other people were aware of it. Prince William noted that another equally improbable leak had recently taken place regarding an appointment he had made with a knee surgeon. After some discussion, the Prince and Bradby concluded it was likely that their voicemails were being accessed. The Metropolitan Police

Metropolitan police

Metropolitan Police is a generic title for the municipal police force for a major metropolitan area, and it may be part of the official title of the force...

set up an investigation under Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke

Peter Clarke (police officer)

Peter John Michael Clarke CVO OBE QPM is a retired senior police officer with London's Metropolitan Police most notably having served as a Deputy Assistant Commissioner with the Specialist Operations directorate, commanding the Counter Terrorism Command.-Early and personal life:Clarke holds a...

, who managed the Counter Terrorism Command

Counter Terrorism Command

Counter Terrorism Command or SO15 is a Specialist Operations branch within London's Metropolitan Police Service. Counter Terrorism Command was established as a result of the merging of the Anti-Terrorist Branch , and the Special Branch in 2006, to form a single counter-terrorism investigative unit...

. Clarke reported to Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman

Andy Hayman

Andrew Christopher "Andy" Hayman, CBE, QPM is a retired British police officer and author of The Terrorist Hunters. Hayman held the rank of Chief Constable of Norfolk Constabulary and Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations at London's Metropolitan Police, the highest ranking officer...

, commander of the Specialist Operations

Specialist Operations

Specialist Operations is a directorate of the Metropolitan Police. At its peak, SO was a group of twenty specialist units, which were formed to give the Metropolitan Police a specialist policing capability. The SO designation was implemented in 1986 as part of Sir Kenneth Newman's restructuring of...

directorate. The reason the investigation was passed to Hayman and Clarke, was that Hayman's command included the Protection Command

Protection Command

The Protection Command is one of the three Commands within the Specialist Operations directorate of London's Metropolitan Police Service. Within the Command, there are two branches - Specialist Protection and Royalty Protection, who provides protective security to the government/diplomatic...

, under whom SO14 provide all Royalty Protection.

Clarke's investigation team searched the London office of the News of the World, eventually concluding that the compromised voice mail accounts belonged to Prince William's aides, including Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, and not the Prince himself. In August 2006, the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...

royal editor, Clive Goodman and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire

Glenn Mulcaire

, were arrested by the Metropolitan Police, and later charged with hacking the telephones of members of the royal family

British Royal Family

by accessing voicemail messages, an offence under section 79 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, regulating the powers of public bodies to carry out surveillance and investigation, and covering the interception of communications...

. News of the World had paid Mulcaire £104,988 for his services, on top of which Goodman had additionally paid Mulcaire £12,300 in cash between 9 November 2005, and 7 August 2006, hiding Mulcaire's identity by using the code name Alexander on his expenses sheet. The court heard that Mulcaire had also hacked into the messages of: supermodel Elle Macpherson

Elle Macpherson

Elle Macpherson is an Australian model, actress, and businesswoman nicknamed "The Body". She is perhaps best known for her record five cover appearances for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue beginning in the 1980s...

; publicist Max Clifford

Max Clifford

Maxwell Frank Clifford is an English publicist, considered the highest-profile and best-known publicist in the United Kingdom...

; MP Simon Hughes

Simon Hughes

Simon Henry Ward Hughes is a British politician and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats. He is Member of Parliament for the constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark. Until 2008 he was President of the Liberal Democrats...

; football agent Skylet Andrew; and the Professional Footballers' Association's Gordon Taylor. On 26 January 2007, both Goodman and Mulcaire pleaded guilty to the charges and were sentenced to four and six months imprisonment respectively. On the same day, it was announced that Andy Coulson

Andy Coulson

had resigned as editor of the News of the World.

Information Commissioner's report

In 2002, under 'Operation Motorman', the Information Commissioner's Office under Richard Thomas raided various newspaper and private investigators' offices, looking for details of personal information kept on unregistered computer databases. The operation uncovered numerous invoices addressed to newspapers and magazines, which detailed prices for providing the journalists with personal information, with 305 journalists being identified as having been the recipients of a wide range of information.

In 2006, a request under the Freedom of Information Act led to the publication of a report to Parliament called "What Price Privacy Now?". The newspaper with the highest number of requests was the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...

with 952 transactions by 58 journalists; the News of the World came fifth in the table, with 182 transactions from 19 journalists. The Daily Mail immediately issued a press release, in which it rejected the accusations within the report. Editor Paul Dacre

Paul Dacre

Paul Michael Dacre is a British journalist and current editor of the British newspaper the Daily Mail. He is also editor in chief of the Mail group titles, which also includes The Mail on Sunday. He is also a director of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc and was a member of the Press Complaints...

said that Associated Newspapers

Associated Newspapers

Associated Newspapers is a large national newspaper publisher in the UK, which is a subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust. The group was established in 1905 and is currently based at Northcliffe House in Kensington...

only used private investigators to confirm public information, such as dates of birth.

In a July 2011 appearance in front of a parliamentary committee, a day after Rebekah Brooks had been arrested and bailed, Dacre told them that he had never "countenanced" phone hacking or blagging at his newspaper, as both acts were clearly "criminal".

2009–2011: Renewed investigations

Investigations into phone hacking at the News of the World

News of the World phone hacking scandal investigations

The News of the World phone hacking scandal investigations followed the revelations in 2005 of voicemail interception on behalf of News of the World...

followed the revelations in 2005, of voicemail interception by employees at the tabloid. Despite wider evidence of wrongdoing, the royal phone hacking affair

News of the World royal phone hacking scandal

The News of the World royal phone hacking scandal was a scandal which developed in 2005 - 2007 around the interception of voice mail relating to the British Royal Family by a private investigator working for a News of the World journalist...

appeared resolved with the 2007 conviction of the News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman

Clive Goodman

and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire

Glenn Mulcaire

, and the resignation of editor Andy Coulson

Andy Coulson

. However, a series of civil legal cases and investigations by newspapers, parliament and the police ultimately saw evidence of "industrial-scale" phone hacking, leading to the closure of the News of the World. The controversy did not end there, developing into a wider ethics scandal involving much of News Corporation as wrongdoing beyond the News of the World (including outlets in the United States) and beyond phone hacking (including bribing police for information) came to light.

Operation Weeting begins

The Metropolitan Police announced on 26 January 2011, that it would begin a new and fresh investigation into the phone hacking affair, following the receipt of "significant new information" regarding the conduct of News of the World employees. Operation Weeting would take place alongside the previously announced review of phone hacking evidence by the Crown Prosecution Service.

The first arrests as part of the new investigation were made on 5 April 2011. Ian Edmondson and the News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck

Neville Thurlbeck

Neville Thurlbeck is a British journalist who worked for the tabloid newspaper News of the World for 21 years. He reached the position of news editor before returning to the position of chief reporter. Thurlbeck was arrested in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting.-Career:In 1998 Thurlbeck was...

were arrested on suspicion of unlawfully intercepting voicemail messages. Both men had denied participating in illegal activities. A third journalist at the newspaper, James Weatherup

James Weatherup

James Weatherup is an English newspaper journalist, news reporter and newspaper editor.After starting out in regional newspapers, he joined the News of the World, serving in two stints over 25 years for nine editors. In his first stint he rose to Chief reporter...

, was arrested on 14 April 2011.

The Guardian, referring to the Information Commissioner's report of 2006, queried why the Metropolitan Police chose to exclude a large quantity of material relating to Jonathan Rees

Jonathan Rees

Jonathan Rees was a private investigator, and former partner of Daniel Morgan-Biography:In 1984, with partner Daniel Morgan, he set up a detective agency, Southern Investigations, in Thornton Heath, Surrey.-Murder of Daniel Morgan:...

from the scope of its Operation Weeting inquiry. The News of the World was said to have made extensive use of Rees' investigative services, including phone hacking, paying him up to £150,000 a year. On the basis of evidence obtained during one of several police inquiries into the murder of Daniel Morgan

Daniel Morgan (private investigator)

Daniel Morgan was a private investigator brutally murdered in Sydenham, south east London, in March 1987. He was said to have been close to exposing important police corruption. His death was the subject of several failed police inquiries and in 2011 was at the centre of allegations concerning the...

, Rees' partner in Southern Investigations Ltd, Rees was found guilty in December 2000, of conspiring to plant cocaine on an innocent woman to discredit her in a child custody dispute. He received a seven year prison sentence for attempting to pervert the course of justice

Perverting the course of justice

Perverting the course of justice, in English, Canadian , and Irish law, is a criminal offence in which someone prevents justice from being served on himself or on another party...

. After he was released from prison the News of the World, under the editorship of Andy Coulson, began commissioning Rees' services again.

The Guardian journalist Nick Davies

Nick Davies

Nick Davies is a British investigative journalist, writer and documentary maker.Davies has written extensively as a freelancer, as well as for The Guardian and The Observer, and been named Reporter of the Year Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards...

described commissions from the News of the World as the "golden source" of income for Rees' "empire of corruption" which involved a network of contacts with corrupt police officers and a pattern of illegal behaviour extending far beyond phone hacking. Despite detailed evidence, the Metropolitan Police failed to pursue effective in-depth investigations into Rees' corrupt relationship with the News of the World over more than a decade.

On 12 July 2011, Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers told MPs and the Home Affairs committee chairman Keith Vaz

Keith Vaz

Nigel Keith Anthony Standish Vaz, known as Keith Vaz, was born 26 November 1956 in Aden, Yemen.Keith Vaz is a British Labour Party politician and a Member of Parliament for Leicester East, He is the longest serving Asian MP and has been the Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee since July...

that police had contacted 170 of the 3,870 people named in Glenn Mulcaire's files to date. There were 11,000 pages of the evidence with 5,000 landline phone numbers and 4,000 mobile phone numbers on them.

Apology and compensation

News International

News International Ltd is the United Kingdom newspaper publishing division of News Corporation. Until June 2002, it was called News International plc....

announced on 8 April 2011, that it would admit liability in some of the breach of privacy cases being brought in relation to phone hacking by the News of the World. The company offered an unreserved apology and compensation to eight claimants, but will continue to contest allegations made by other litigants.

The eight claimants were identified in media reports as:

Sienna Miller
Sienna Miller
Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...

, actress
Kelly Hoppen
Kelly Hoppen
Kelly Elaine Hoppen MBE is a South African-born British interior designer and owner of Kelly Hoppen Interiors.-Career:Hoppen began her career at the age of 17. Her first restaurant design was the Gary Rhodes restaurant Rhodes W1. She went on to design apartments for a number of celebrities...

, interior designer and Miller's stepmother
Tessa Jowell
Tessa Jowell
Tessa Jowell is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Dulwich and West Norwood since 1992. Formerly a member of both the Blair and Brown Cabinets, she is currently the Shadow Minister for the Olympics and Shadow Minister for London.-Early life:Tessa Jane...

, Member of Parliament and former cabinet minister
David Mills
David Mills (lawyer)
David Mackenzie Mills is a British corporate lawyer who specialises in international work for Italian companies. He was accused of money-laundering and alleged tax fraud, involving Silvio Berlusconi, he was convicted in first instance and in appeal, but the conviction was quashed by the Supreme...

, lawyer and Jowell's former husband
Andy Gray, sports pundit and former footballer
Joan Hammell, aide to the former Deputy Prime Minister
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a senior member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. The office of the Deputy Prime Minister is not a permanent position, existing only at the discretion of the Prime Minister, who may appoint to other offices...

John Prescott
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...
Sky Andrew
Sky Andrew
Skylet Andrew , is English former Olympic and Commonwealth Games table tennis player for Great Britain, who was the first Black British sports agent.-Biography:...

, sports talent agent
Nicola Phillips, assistant to the publicist Max Clifford
Max Clifford
Maxwell Frank Clifford is an English publicist, considered the highest-profile and best-known publicist in the United Kingdom...

At the time of News International's announcement, 24 individuals were in the process of taking legal action against the News of the World on breach of privacy grounds. Comic actor Steve Coogan

Steve Coogan

was reported to be one of the suspected victims of phone hacking.

Hoppen lodged a further claim against the News of the World and one of its reporters, Dan Evans, for "accessing or attempting to access her voicemail messages between June 2009, and March 2010". News International has not admitted liability in relation to the claim.

On 10 April, Tessa Jowell and her former husband David Mills, Andy Gray, Sky Andrew, Nicola Phillips, Joan Hammell, and Kelly Hoppen all received the official apology and compensation, but actor Leslie Ash and John Prescott, who both had also claimed breach of privacy, did not.

Politician George Galloway

George Galloway

George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...

said the apology was a cynical attempt to protect Rebekah Brooks, while Scottish politician Danny Alexander

Danny Alexander

Daniel Grian Alexander is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has been Chief Secretary to the Treasury since 2010. He has been the Member of Parliament for the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey constituency since 2005....

predicted further arrests would be made. The shadow Welsh secretary

Secretary of State for Wales

The Secretary of State for Wales is the head of the Wales Office within the British cabinet. He or she is responsible for ensuring Welsh interests are taken into account by the government, representing the government within Wales and overseeing the passing of legislation which is only for Wales...

Peter Hain

Peter Gerald Hain is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for the Welsh constituency of Neath since 1991, and has served in the Cabinets of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, firstly as Leader of the House of Commons under Blair and both Secretary of State for...

called on the legal authorities to conduct a "full and proper public investigation" and then claimed the police investigation had been "tardy".

The first individual to accept the News of the World apology and compensation was actress Sienna Miller, who received £100,000 plus legal costs. Sports pundit Andy Gray followed in June, accepting a payout of £20,000 plus legal costs. Prior to the settlements, both individuals' litigation claims had been identified as phone hacking "test cases" to be heard in January 2012.

In April, The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

reported claims from a former minister that Rupert Murdoch tried to persuade Prime Minister Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown

James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...

early in 2010, to help in resisting attempts by Labour MPs and peers to investigate the affair, and to go easy on News of the World in the run up to the UK's general election of May 2010. News International described the report as "total rubbish"; a spokesperson for Brown declined to comment.

Arrest of James Weatherup

A News of the World reporter and the paper's assistant news editor, James Weatherup

James Weatherup

, was taken into custody for questioning by the Metropolitan Police on 14 April 2011. He had also dealt with some major fiscal issues, "managing huge budgets" and "crisis management" at the newspaper. Weatherup was a colleague of chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck

Neville Thurlbeck

and the former assistant news editor Ian Edmondson

Ian Edmondson

Ian Edmondson is a British tabloid journalist. He was the news editor at the News of the World. Edmondson was arrested by the Metropolitan police in April 2011 as part of Operation Weeting.-Career:...

, both of whom were also later arrested.

The BBC reported on 20 May 2011, that a senior News of the World executive was implicated, according to actor Jude Law

Jude Law

David Jude Heyworth Law , known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor, film producer and director.He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989...

's barrister in the High Court. This report also said that the number of people whose phones may have been hacked may be much larger than previously thought. The High Court was said to have been told that "notebooks belonging to a private investigator hired by News Group Newspapers contained thousands of mobile phone numbers" and "police also found 149 individual personal identification numbers and almost 400 unique voicemail numbers which can be used to access voice mail".

Milly Dowler's voicemail

It was first reported by The Guardian on 4 July 2011, that police had found evidence suggesting that the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire

Glenn Mulcaire

collected personal information about the family of the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, following her disappearance in March 2002, and the subsequent discovery of her murdered body six months later. According to the paper, journalists working for the News of the World had hired private investigators to hack into Dowler's voicemail inbox. It was alleged that they had deleted some messages, giving false hope to police and to Dowler's family who thought that she might have deleted the messages herself and therefore might still be alive, and potentially destroying valuable evidence about her abduction and murder by serial killer Levi Bellfield

Levi Bellfield

Levi Bellfield is a British serial killer. A former nightclub bouncer and manager of a car clamping business, he was convicted on 25 February 2008 of murdering Marsha McDonnell and Amelie Delagrange. He was also convicted of the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy...

, who was convicted and jailed for life in June 2011. The Guardian commented that the News of the World did not conceal from its readers in an article on 14 April 2002, that it had intercepted telephone messages and also informed Surrey police of this fact on 27 March 2002, six days after Milly went missing.

As of July 2011, the Dowler family was preparing a claim for damages against the News of the World. News Group Newspapers described the allegation as "a development of great concern". Reacting to the revelation, Prime Minister David Cameron

David Cameron

said that the alleged hacking, if true, was "truly dreadful". He added that police ought to pursue a "vigorous" investigation to ascertain what had taken place. Leader of the opposition Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband

Edward Samuel Miliband is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition...

called on Rebekah Brooks, the News of the World editor in 2002, and then the chief executive of News International, to "consider her conscience and consider her position". Brooks denied knowledge of phone hacking during her editorship.

It was in the wake of the Dowler allegations that a significant number of people, including former deputy prime minister John Prescott

John Prescott

John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007. Born in Prestatyn, Wales, he represented Hull East as the Labour Member of Parliament from 1970 to 2010...

and other politicians, began to seriously question whether the takeover of British Sky Broadcasting

British Sky Broadcasting

British Sky Broadcasting Group plc is a satellite broadcasting, broadband and telephony services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, with operations in the United Kingdom and the Ireland....

by News Corporation ought to be blocked. The Media Standards Trust

Media Standards Trust

The Media Standards Trust was formed in 2006 to address concerns of a deterioration in journalistic standards at a time when the media were becoming enormously powerful while remaining largely opaque and unaccountable...

formed the pressure group Hacked Off, to campaign for a public inquiry

Public inquiry

A Tribunal of Inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body in Common Law countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland or Canada. Such a public inquiry differs from a Royal Commission in that a public inquiry accepts evidence and conducts its hearings in a more...

. Soon after launch, the campaign gained the support of suspected hacking victim, the actor Hugh Grant

Hugh Grant

Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...

, who became a public spokesperson, appearing on Question Time
Question Time
Question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of government ministers , which they are obliged to answer. It usually occurs daily while parliament is sitting, though it can be cancelled in exceptional circumstances...

and Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....

.

British soldiers' relatives

On 6 July 2011, The Daily Telegraph reported that the phones of some relatives of British soldiers killed in action in Iraq and Afghanistan

War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...

may have been accessed by the News of the World. It said that personal details and phone numbers belonging to relations of dead service personnel were found in the files of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. In response to the allegations, The Royal British Legion

The Royal British Legion

The Royal British Legion , sometimes referred to as simply The Legion, is the United Kingdom's leading charity providing financial, social and emotional support to those who have served or who are currently serving in the British Armed Forces, and their dependants.-History:The British Legion was...

announced that it would suspend all ties with the News of the World, dropping the newspaper as its campaigning partner.

7/7 London attack victims

On the day before the sixth anniversary of the 7 July 2005 London bombings

7 July 2005 London bombings

The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....

, it was reported that relatives of some victims may have had their telephones accessed by the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...

in the aftermath of the attacks. The fathers of two victims told the BBC that police officers investigating the alleged hacking had warned them that their contact details were found on a target list, while a former firefighter who helped rescue injured passengers also said he had been contacted by police who were looking into the hacking allegations. A number of survivors from the bombings also revealed that police had warned them their phones may have been accessed and their messages intercepted, and in some cases were advised to change security codes and PINs.

Sara Payne

On 28 July, The Guardian reported that the News of the World hacked into the voicemail of media campaigner Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter, Sarah Payne, was murdered by a paedophile in 2000. This news was arguably met with even more public outrage than the Dowler revelations, given the prominent role that Rebekah Brooks and the News of the World played in spearheading the passage of Sarah's Law, which strengthened sex offender

Sex offender

A sex offender is a person who has committed a sex crime. What constitutes a sex crime differs by culture and by legal jurisdiction. Most jurisdictions compile their laws into sections such as traffic, assault, sexual, etc. The majority of convicted sex offenders have convictions for crimes of a...

laws in the UK after the child's murder. Brooks developed a long-standing friendship with Sara Payne in the years since her daughter's death; Payne wrote a column praising the News of the World support for Sarah's Law in its final issue, writing that the paper's staff "supported me through some of the darkest, most difficult times of my life and became my trusted friends". Brooks used the Sarah's Law campaign to defend the News of the World when she was questioned by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

Scotland Yard had reportedly found materials pertaining to Payne in Glenn Mulcaire's notes. They also discovered that Payne's voicemail was on a mobile phone given to her by Brooks, ostensibly to help her keep in touch with supporters. Brooks issued a statement denying that the News of the World was aware of Mulcaire's targeting of Payne, saying that such an idea was "unthinkable". Payne was said to be "absolutely devastated and deeply disappointed" at the disclosure, while a colleague close to her said that she was "in bits" over the affair.

Other victims

Some email messages were discovered suggesting Jonathan Rees made requests for sums of around £1,000 for contact details of senior members of the Royal Family and friends.

Former deputy prime minister John Prescott

John Prescott

claimed he knew of "direct evidence" indicating The Sunday Times was involved in illegal news gathering activities. Former prime minister Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown

alleged his bank account was accessed by The Sunday Times in 2000, and that The Sun gained private medical records about his son, Fraser. Rebekah Brooks telephoned Brown to tell him that The Sun was going to reveal that his son had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...

and tried to persuade him not to spoil the newspaper's exclusive by announcing it himself first. The Guardian later ran a front page story accusing The Sun of improperly obtaining the medical records of Brown's son, but was later forced to issue an apology upon discovering that the information came from a member of the public.

Other victims of hacking included former Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner John Yates, who revealed on 12 January 2011, that his phone was hacked between 2004 and 2005. The phone of chat show host Paul O'Grady

Paul O'Grady

Paul James Michael O'Grady MBE is an English comedian, television presenter, actor, writer and radio DJ. He is best known for presenting the daytime chat television series, The Paul O'Grady Show and, more recently, Paul O'Grady Live, as well as his drag queen comedic alter ego, Lily Savage, as...

was also hacked by the News of the World after he suffered a heart attack in 2006.

In July 2011 it was reported that Mark Stephens (solicitor)

Mark Stephens (solicitor)

Mark Howard Stephens CBE is a British solicitor specialising in media law, intellectual property rights and human rights with the firm Finers Stephens Innocent...

had been one of a group of high profile lawyers who may have been the victim of "News International phone hacking scandal".

Mary Ellen Field, the former business manager of model Elle Macpherson

Elle Macpherson

, lost her job after Field was accused of leaking confidential information to the News of the World, which had published a story about Macpherson's split with Arpad Busson

Arpad Busson

Arpad A. Busson is a London-based socialite and Swiss financier. Busson entered the world of hedge funds in 1986 working in New York. He is the founder and Chairman of the EIM Group, a fund-of-funds company. Mr. Busson is also very active in a number of philanthropic causes around the...

. Field realised their voicemails could have been intercepted after Glenn Mulcaire admitted in court to accessing Macpherson's phones.

A cousin of Jean Charles de Menezes

Jean Charles de Menezes

Jean Charles de Menezes was a Brazilian man shot in the head seven times at Stockwell tube station on the London Underground by the London Metropolitan police, after he was misidentified as one of the fugitives involved in the previous day's failed bombing attempts...

, the Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

ian man shot dead by police who mistook him for a fugitive suspected of involvement in the 21 July 2005 attempted bombings

21 July 2005 London bombings

On 21 July 2005, four attempted bomb attacks disrupted part of London's public transport system two weeks after the 7 July 2005 London bombings. The explosions occurred around midday at Shepherd's Bush, Warren Street and Oval stations on London Underground, and on a bus in Shoreditch...

in London, may also have had his phone hacked by the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...

after Menezes's death. A spokesperson from the Justice4Jean campaign group said: "The Menezes family are deeply pained to find their phones may have been hacked at a time at which they were at their most vulnerable and bereaved."

Carole Caplin

Carole Caplin

Carole Caplin was the style adviser to Cherie Blair and a fitness adviser to Tony Blair, when he was the British Prime Minister...

, the former fitness adviser to Prime Minister Tony Blair

Tony Blair

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

, announced that the Metropolitan police had told her that her mobile phone was probably hacked, dating back to 2002, one of the earliest cases so far discovered.

Coulson's second resignation

Having resigned in 2007, as editor of the News of the World in the aftermath of the royal hacking affair, Andy Coulson

Andy Coulson

quit his position as David Cameron

David Cameron

's communications director on 21 January 2011, citing "continued coverage of events connected to my old job at the News of the World".

Closure of the News of the World

The closure of the News of the World after 168 years in print was the first significant effect of the scandal.
In the days leading up to 7 July 2011, Virgin Holidays

Virgin Holidays

Virgin Holidays Limited is a company within Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, headquartered in "The Office" in Crawley, West Sussex. The company was formed in 1985, a year after the successful launch of Virgin Atlantic Airways in June 1984...

, the Co-operative Group, Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

and General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

(owner of Vauxhall Motors

Vauxhall Motors

Vauxhall Motors is a British automotive company owned by General Motors and headquartered in Luton. It was founded in 1857 as a pump and marine engine manufacturer, began manufacturing cars in 1903 and was acquired by GM in 1925. It has been the second-largest selling car brand in the UK for...

) had all pulled their advertisements from the News of the World in response to the unfolding controversy. Other major advertisers who considered doing likewise included mobile phone operators Vodafone, O2, Everything Everywhere

Everything Everywhere

Everything Everywhere Limited is a mobile network operator and internet service provider company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest mobile network operator in the UK, with around 28 million customers...

(T-Mobile

T-Mobile

T-Mobile International AG is a German-based holding company for Deutsche Telekom AG's various mobile communications subsidiaries outside Germany. Based in Bonn, Germany, its subsidiaries operate GSM and UMTS-based cellular networks in Europe, the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...

and Orange), Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom AG is a telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is the largest telecommunications company in Europe....

, France Telecom

France Télécom

France Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...

, EasyJet

EasyJet

EasyJet Airline Company Limited is a British airline headquartered at London Luton Airport. It carries more passengers than any other United Kingdom-based airline, operating domestic and international scheduled services on 500 routes between 118 European, North African, and West Asian airports...

, Lloyds Banking Group

Lloyds Banking Group

Lloyds Banking Group plc is a major British financial institution, formed through the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB in 2009. As at February 2010, HM Treasury held a 41% shareholding through UK Financial Investments Limited . The Group headquarters is located at 25 Gresham Street in London, with...

, German utility company RWE

RWE

RWE AG , is a German electric power and natural gas public utility company based in Essen. Through its various subsidiaries, the energy company contributes electricity and gas to more than 20 million electricity customers and 10 million gas customers, principally in Europe...

(owner of Npower

Npower (UK)

RWE Npower plc is a UK-based electricity and gas supply generation company, formerly known as Innogy plc. As Innogy plc it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index...

), electricals retailer Dixons, and Tesco

Tesco

Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

. Kesa Electricals, owner of the Comet electricals chain, and Renault

Renault

Renault S.A. is a French automaker producing cars, vans, and in the past, autorail vehicles, trucks, tractors, vans and also buses/coaches. Its alliance with Nissan makes it the world's third largest automaker...

said they had no advertising plans scheduled in the foreseeable future and were also considering whether they should join any future boycott.

James Murdoch announced on 7 July 2011, that, after 168 years in print, the News of the World would publish its last-ever edition on 10 July, with the loss of 200 jobs.
News Corporation said that all profits from the final edition would go to good causes. Downing Street said it had no role in the decision. James Murdoch conceded the paper was "sullied by behaviour that was wrong", saying "if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company."

Other executives of the company said the phone hacking was more widespread than previously believed and that they are cooperating with investigations into the allegations. Editor Rebekah Brooks told staff at a meeting that she recognised following an internal investigation that "other shoes would drop", a phrase indicating that further revelations of wrongdoing would follow.

There was immediate speculation that News International will launch a Sunday edition of The Sun to replace its sister paper News of the World.

BSkyB takeover bid withdrawn

Rupert Murdoch announced on 13 July that News Corporation was withdrawing its proposal to take full control of the subscription television broadcaster BSkyB, due to concerns over the ongoing furore. The announcement was made a few hours before the House of Commons was due to debate a motion, supported by all major parties, calling on News Corporation to withdraw its proposal. In a symbolic gesture the House later passed the motion unanimously by acclamation

Acclamation

An acclamation, in its most common sense, is a form of election that does not use a ballot. "Acclamation" or "acclamatio" can also signify a kind of ritual greeting and expression of approval in certain social contexts in ancient Rome.-Voting:...

New York State contract lost by subsidiary of News Corporation

The week of 22 August 2011, Wireless Generation, a subsidiary of News Corporation, lost a no-bid contract with New York State to build an information system for tracking student performance as a direct consequence of the News International phone hacking scandal. Citing, "... vendor responsibility issues with the parent company of Wireless Generation," state comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli said that the revelations surrounding News Corporation had made the final approval of the contract "untenable".

Resignations

A number of senior employees and executives resigned from News International and its parent company after the emergence of the new allegations, along with high-ranking officers of the Metropolitan Police Service

Metropolitan Police Service

.

News International's legal manager Tom Crone

Tom Crone

Tom Crone is a British barrister, last working for News International as Legal Affiars manager, before he resigned during the News International phone hacking scandal.-Career:...

left the company on 13 July. As part of his role at the publisher, Crone had served as the News of the World chief lawyer and gave evidence before parliamentary committees stating that he had uncovered no evidence of phone hacking beyond the criminal offences committed by the royal editor Clive Goodman. He maintains that he did not see an internal report suggesting that phone hacking at the paper reached more widely than Goodman.

Two key resignations were announced on 15 July. Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International, quit following widespread criticism of her role in the controversy. In a statement, Brooks said that "my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate", and stated that she would "concentrate on correcting the distortions and rebutting the allegations about my record". Her exit was welcomed by political leaders. Prime Minister David Cameron

David Cameron

's office said that her departure was "the right decision", while Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband

Edward Samuel Miliband is a British Labour Party politician, currently the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition...

agreed but suggested that she should have departed ten days earlier. Tom Mockridge

Tom Mockridge

Tom Mockridge , is the chief executive of News International, replacing Rebekah Brooks who resigned over the phone hacking scandal....

, the long-time chief executive of the Italian satellite broadcaster Sky Italia

Sky Italia

Sky Italia S.r.l. is an Italian digital satellite television platform owned by News Corporation launched on 1 August 2003, when the former platforms TELE+ and Stream TV merged together...

, was announced as Brooks' replacement at the head of News International.

Later on the same day, Les Hinton

Les Hinton

resigned as the chief executive of the News Corporation subsidiary Dow Jones & Company

Dow Jones & Company

Dow Jones & Company is an American publishing and financial information firm.The company was founded in 1882 by three reporters: Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser. Like The New York Times and the Washington Post, the company was in recent years publicly traded but privately...

. Hinton had served as chief executive of News International between 1997, and 2005. He had previously told parliamentary committees that there was "never any evidence" of phone hacking beyond the case of Clive Goodman. In his resignation announcement, Hinton said that he was not told of "evidence that wrongdoing went further", but indicated that he nevertheless felt it "proper" to resign from his position.

On 17 July, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police

Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis

The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service, classing the holder as a chief police officer...

and Britain's most senior police officer, Sir Paul Stephenson

Paul Stephenson (police officer)

Sir Paul Robert Stephenson, QPM was the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, 2009-2011, the most senior police officer within the United Kingdom....

, announced his resignation with immediate effect. He had faced criticism for hiring former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis

Neil Wallis

Neil John Wallis is a former newspaper editor in the United Kingdom.-Early life:Wallis was born in Lincolnshire. He attended Skegness Grammar School.-Journalism:...

as an advisor and for having received free hospitality at a luxury health spa owned by a company for which Wallis also worked. Stephenson's resignation was followed by that of assistant commissioner

Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis

Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, usually just Assistant Commissioner , is the third highest rank in London's Metropolitan Police, ranking below Deputy Commissioner and above Deputy Assistant Commissioner. There are usually four officers in the rank...

John Yates on 18 July. Yates had been criticised for failing to re-open the original 2006 investigation into phone hacking at News International despite new evidence coming to light in 2009.

Dismissals

Matt Nixson was escorted by security from the Wapping headquarters of The Sun newspaper the evening of 20 July 2011. His computer was seized by News International officials and the police were said to have been informed.
Nixson was a features editor at The Sun. It was reported that Nixson's dismissal was related to the time he spent at the News of the World from 2006, when it was edited by Coulson. At the News of the World he reported to assistant editor Ian Edmondson

Ian Edmondson

.
On 20 September it was reported that the Metropolitan police had written to News International to inform them that they did not intend to question Nixson over phone hacking. Nixson was reported to be considering bringing a case for unfair dismissal against his former employers.

Leaves/Suspensions

Pending the result of an Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC – see below) enquiry into his dealings with Neil Wallis (see below), a former assistant editor of the News of the World, Dick Fedorcio, director of public affairs and internal communication for the Metropolitan Police, was put on extended leave 10 August 2011.

Cautions

Details emerged 7 September 2011 that senior journalist Amelia Hill of The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

was questioned under caution, but not arrest, for several hours by officers from Operation Weeting the previous week. Hill, 37, has reported the names of individuals linked to the phone hacking scandal minutes after their arrests and it is thought her questioning is linked to the earlier arrest of a 51 year old detective suspected of leaking information to the newspaper.

Apologies

From 15 July, onwards, News Corp began to change its position through a series of public apologies. On 15 July, Rupert Murdoch in interview with the News Corp owned The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

apologised for the News of the World letting slip the group's standards of journalism. Murdoch also alleged that the group's legal advisers, Harbottle & Lewis, had made "a major mistake" in its part in the internal investigation into phone-hacking in 2007. On 18 July, Harbottle & Lewis issued an open letter outlining its position, and appointed Luther Pendragon to handle PR issues relating to the affair.

On 16 and 17 July, News International published two full-page apologies in many of Britain's national newspapers. The first apology took the form of a letter, signed by Rupert Murdoch, in which he said sorry for the "serious wrongdoing" that occurred. The second was titled "Putting right what's gone wrong", and gave more detail about the steps News International was taking to address the public's concerns.

On the afternoon before the ads were published, Rupert Murdoch also attended a private meeting in London with the family of Milly Dowler, where he apologised for the hacking of their murdered daughter's voicemail. The Dowler family's solicitor later said Murdoch appeared shaken and upset during the talks. He added that the Dowlers were surprised Murdoch's son James did not attend and called on the News International chairman to "take some responsibility" in the affair.

Andy Coulson

The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

reported on 7 July 2011, that former News of the World editor and David Cameron's former spokesman Andy Coulson

Andy Coulson

was to be arrested the following day, along with a senior journalist the paper refused to name.
Sky News

Sky News

Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...

reported on 8 July 2011, that Coulson had been formally arrested,
although the Metropolitan Police

Metropolitan Police Service

would only confirm that a "43-year-old man" had been arrested for "conspiring to intercept communications." It was also noted that the police could hold Coulson for up to 96 hours without charge as allowed under the Police (Detention and Bail) Act 2011

Police (Detention and Bail) Act 2011

The Police Act 2011 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that amends those sections of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 relating to the detention of criminal suspects by police forces in England and Wales....

, but must be either charged or released after that time.
The Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

was quick to stand by its communications director Andy Coulson

Andy Coulson

, who was editor of the News of the World at the time the alleged buggings took place.

Neil Wallis

Former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis

Neil Wallis

Neil John Wallis is a former newspaper editor in the United Kingdom.-Early life:Wallis was born in Lincolnshire. He attended Skegness Grammar School.-Journalism:...

was arrested in west London on 14 July on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications. He joined the paper in 2003, as a deputy to Coulson, and in 2007, became an executive editor before leaving in 2009. Later that year his media consultancy company began to advise Paul Stephenson

Paul Stephenson (police officer)

Sir Paul Robert Stephenson, QPM was the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, 2009-2011, the most senior police officer within the United Kingdom....

and John Yates, two high-ranking Metropolitan Police officers, providing "strategic communications advice" until September 2010. During that time, Yates made the decision that the phone hacking needed no further investigation, despite The Guardian alleging that the previous investigation had been inadequate. He was also paid to advise commissioner Stephenson and Yates.

Rebekah Brooks

Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of the News of the World and former chief executive of News International, was arrested on 17 July on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption. She was arrested by appointment at a London police station by detectives working on Operation Weeting

Operation Weeting

Operation Weeting is a British police investigation that commenced on 26 January 2011, under the Specialist Crime Directorate of the Metropolitan Police Service into allegations of phone hacking in the News of the World phone hacking affair...

, the Metropolitan Police's phone hacking investigation, and Operation Elveden

Operation Elveden

Operation Elveden is a British police investigation. It was opened as a result of documents provided by News International to the Operation Weeting investigation.-Background:...

, the probe examining illicit payments to police officers.

Following twelve hours in custody, Brooks was released on bail until late October.

On 18 July, police reported the discovery of a rubbish bag containing a laptop, documents, a phone dumped in an underground parking garage near Brooks' home. Brooks' husband had initially tried to claim the trash bag, which he said contained his property unrelated to the investigation.

Stuart Kuttner, Greg Miskiw, James Desborough, Dan Evans and others

Stuart Kuttner

Stuart Kuttner is a former newspaper editor. He worked as the news editor for the London Evening Standard before joining the News of the World newspaper in 1980 first as a deputy editor, then as managing editor. He held the position for 22 years before stepping down from his post in 2009 and...

, the former managing editor of the News of the World, was arrested on 2 August on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption. He was arrested by appointment at a London police station by Operation Weeting

Operation Weeting

and Operation Elveden

Operation Elveden

Operation Elveden is a British police investigation. It was opened as a result of documents provided by News International to the Operation Weeting investigation.-Background:...

detectives. (Kuttner was re-arrested 30 August 2011 for further questioning.)

Eight days later, Greg Miskiw

Greg Miskiw

Greg Miskiw is a former news editor of the defunct British tabloid newspaper the News of the World.-Mirror Group:During the 1980s Miskiw worked as a reporter for tabloid papers published by the Mirror Group. He was arrested by the Polish authorities for visa irregularities in 1981 whilst working...

, a former News of the World news editor, was arrested on suspicion of unlawful interception of communications and conspiring to intercept communications. He was arrested by appointment at a London police station by detectives working on Operation Weeting, the police investigation into phone hacking.

James Desborough

James Desborough

James Desborough started work at the London regional newspaper the Barking & Dagenham Post as a news reporter in 1994. The newspaper’s other famous past reporters include Phil Hall, who later became the editor of The News of The World....

was arrested after arriving, by appointment, at a south London police station the morning of 18 August 2011 for questions concerning criminal activities at the News of the World. His arrest was based on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications. Desborough was promoted to be the newspaper's Los Angeles-based US editor in 2009. Prior to that appointment, he was an award-winning show-business reporter based in London.
Dan Evans, a former reporter for News of the World, was arrested and later bailed on 19 August 2011. An unnamed 30 year old man was arrested and later bailed on 2 September 2011.

In an early morning raid on his North London home on 7 September 2011, deputy football editor of The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

Raoul Simons (on extended leave from his job since September 2010) was arrested and held for questioning on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages by police officers from Operation Weeting.

A reporter working for The Sun was arrested and taken to a south west London police station at 10.30 am on 4 November 2011. The man is the sixth person to be arrested in the UK under the News International-related legal probe, Operation Elveden.
The 48-year-old The Sun journalist Jamie Pyatt had been arrested by detectives on 4 November 2011, investigating illegal payments to police officers by journalists, and has been released on bail.

Murdochs and Brooks summonsed to Parliament

On 14 July, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons served a summons

Summons

Legally, a summons is a legal document issued by a court or by an administrative agency of government for various purposes.-Judicial summons:...

on Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks, expecting them to appear before the parliamentary committee on 19 July. After an initial invitation to give evidence to the committee, Brooks stated she would attend but the Murdochs declined. Rupert Murdoch claimed to be unavailable on that date but said he would be "fully prepared" to give evidence in Leveson's inquiry, while James Murdoch offered to appear on an alternative date, the earliest of which was 10 August. The Murdochs did, however, later confirm they would attend after the committee issued them a summons to Parliament.
At their appearance before the committee, Rupert Murdoch said it had been "the most humble day of my life" and argued that since he ran a global business of 53,000 employees and that the News of the World was "just 1%" of this, he was not ultimately responsible for what went on at the tabloid; he added that he had not considered resigning. Meanwhile, his son James described the "illegal voicemail interceptions" as a "matter of great regret" but that the company was "determined to put things right and make sure they do not happen again". James Murdoch stated that News International had based its "push back" against new allegations on the combination of three pieces of evidence: that the Metropolitan Police had closed their investigation; that the Crown Prosecution Service had closed their prosecution; and that they had received the previously submitted written advice from their then legal advisors Harbottle & Lewis, that there was nothing to suggest phone hacking was not the work of one "rogue reporter" working with private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Towards the end of the Murdochs' two hours of evidence, a protestor sitting in the public gallery, identified as self-described "comedian" Jonnie Marbles, threw a shaving-foam

Shaving cream

Shaving cream is a substance that is applied to the face or wherever else hair grows, to provide lubrication and avoid razor burn during shaving. Shaving cream is often bought in a spray can, but can also be purchased in tubs or tubes. Shaving cream in a can is commonly dispensed as a foam or a gel...

pie at Rupert Murdoch. The incident propelled Rupert Mudoch's wife, Wendi Deng Murdoch, into the media spotlight for her athletic response in defense of her husband. Marbles later detailed that he has "respect" for Deng. Marbles, known off-stage as Jonathan May-Bowles, was sentenced to six weeks in prison for the attack.

Harbottle & Lewis later commented that it could not respond to "any inaccurate statements or contentions" about the 2007 letter to News International due to client confidentiality. Later on the same day, giving evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee, former director of public prosecutions Lord MacDonald stated that it took him "three to five minutes" to decide that the same emails contained in the file passed to Harbottle & Lewis contained "blindingly obvious" evidence of corrupt payments to police officers, which had to be immediately passed to the Metropolitan Police.

Brooks answered questions at the committee after the Murdochs and independently of them.
She began by calling the practice of phone hacking at the newspaper she edited as "pretty horrific". Upon questioning, she confirmed that under her editorship she knew the News of the World hired private detectives but denied having ever met Glenn Mulcaire.

Reaction

The testimony of James Murdoch was questioned by two former News International executives. Murdoch had denied reading or being aware of an email, sent after he authorised an out-of-court payment to Gordon Taylor over the hacking of his phone, which suggested the practice was more widely used than just by a rogue News of the World reporter. A former editor of the newspaper, Colin Myler, and Tom Crone, the former News International legal manager, both said they "did inform" him of the email.

News Corporation's management standards committee

On 18 July, News Corporation announced that its UK management standards committee would be removed from News International. It will now be housed in a separate building, under the chairmanship of Lord Grabiner

Anthony Grabiner, Baron Grabiner

Anthony Stephen Grabiner, Baron Grabiner QC is a British barrister. He is the head of chambers at One Essex Court, a leading set of commercial barristers in the Temple....

, and reporting to News Corporation director Joel Klein

Joel Klein

Joel Irwin Klein was Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, the largest public school system in the United States, serving more than 1.1 million students in more than 1,600 schools...

. As a result, existing News International executives Will Lewis and Simon Greenberg will resign their existing positions with News International and become News Corporation employees, focused initially on the clean-up of News International. In September 2011 it was reported that the MSC was not issuing employees of News International who had had their contracts terminated with the reasons for their dismissal in case this would compromise the ongoing police inquiry.

Death of Sean Hoare

On 18 July, former News of the World journalist Sean Hoare

Sean Hoare

Sean Hoare was a British entertainment journalist. He contributed to articles on show business, from actors to reality television stars...

, who was the first reporter to tell of "endemic" phone hacking at the publication for which he used to work, was found dead at his home in Watford

Watford

Watford is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, situated northwest of central London and within the bounds of the M25 motorway. The borough is separated from Greater London to the south by the urbanised parish of Watford Rural in the Three Rivers District.Watford was created as an urban...

, Hertfordshire. A police spokesperson said the death was treated as "unexplained" but not suspicious.

Daily Mirror allegations

On 20 July Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...

questioned how the Sunday Mirror
Sunday Mirror
The Sunday Mirror is the Sunday sister paper of the Daily Mirror. It began life in 1915 as the Sunday Pictorial and was renamed the Sunday Mirror in 1963. Trinity Mirror also owns The People...

had in early 2003, obtained a transcript of phone calls by Angus Deayton

Angus Deayton

Gordon Angus Deayton is an English actor, writer, musician, comedian and broadcaster. He is best known for his role as Victor Meldrew's long-suffering neighbour Patrick Trench in the comedy series One Foot in the Grave...

, and in October 2003, had come into possession of every call and text message made by Rio Ferdinand

Rio Ferdinand

Rio Gavin Ferdinand is an English footballer. He plays at centre back for Manchester United in the Premier League and for the England national football team...

one afternoon (when he claimed to have missed a drugs test due to having his mobile switched off). The latter story was co-written by James Weatherup

James Weatherup

, who moved to the News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...

the following year.

On 22 July, former Daily Mirror financial journalist James Hipwell

James Hipwell

James Hipwell is a former Daily Mirror business journalist who was investigated over the so-called 'City Slickers' share tipping scandal along with the paper's then editor, Piers Morgan...

spoke to The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

claiming that the practice had been "endemic" at the Mirror during his time there under the editorship of Piers Morgan

Piers Morgan

Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan , known professionally as Piers Morgan, is a British journalist and television presenter. He is editorial director of First News, a national newspaper for children....

.

He also alleged that phone hacking took place at some of the Mirror's sister publications. Trinity Mirror

Trinity Mirror

Trinity Mirror plc is a large British newspaper and magazine publisher. It is Britain's biggest newspaper group, publishing 240 regional papers as well as the national Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People, and the Scottish Sunday Mail and Daily Record. Its headquarters are at Canary Wharf in...

, the publisher of the Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, rejected Hipwell's claims. A spokesman said: "Our position is clear...Our journalists work within the criminal law and the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct." The BBC's Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....

programme reported other sources at the Sunday Mirror confirming use of phone hacking, with one source saying "At one point in 2004, it seemed like it was the only way people were getting scoops." It was also said that the paper made use of private investigators. On 26 July Trinity Mirror announced an internal review of its editorial procedures.

On 3 August Heather Mills alleged that a senior journalist working for Trinity Mirror had admitted to her in 2001 that the company had access voicemail messages which they knew to have been obtained by hacking. In response Trinity Mirror repeated the statement used in rejecting James Hipwell's claims, saying "Our position is clear. All our journalists work within the criminal law and the PCC code of conduct."

Also on 3 August 3 Piers Morgan

Piers Morgan

Piers Stefan Pughe-Morgan , known professionally as Piers Morgan, is a British journalist and television presenter. He is editorial director of First News, a national newspaper for children....

issued a statement through CNN, his current employer, that “I have never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, nor to my knowledge published any story obtained from the hacking of a phone.” However, this statement omitted comment on whether he had any knowledge of phone hacking by employees or paid contractors of the Mirror during the period he was editor there.

That Mr. Morgan did have knowledge of phone hacking is suggested in his own 2006 article in the Daily Mail regarding a phone message from Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...

to his then girlfriend Heather Mills in which Mr. Morgan stated, "At one stage I was played a tape of a message Paul had left for Heather on her mobile phone. It was heartbreaking... The couple had clearly had a tiff, Heather had fled to India, and Paul was pleading with her to come back. He sounded lonely, miserable and desperate, and even sang 'We Can Work It Out ' into the answer phone." On 3 August, Heather Mills told BBC's Newsnight: "There was absolutely no honest way that Piers Morgan could have obtained that tape ... unless they had gone into my voice messages."

Harbottle and Lewis

During the internal investigation into the unfair dismissal claim against News Group Newspapers Limited by Glen Goodman, News International hired law firm Harbottle & Lewis

Harbottle & Lewis

Harbottle & Lewis is a law firm based in London, United Kingdom which advises clients across the media, communications and entertainment industries....

(H&L) and passed on hundreds of internal emails to them. Lawrence Abramson of Harbottle & Lewis (H&L)

Harbottle & Lewis

Harbottle & Lewis is a law firm based in London, United Kingdom which advises clients across the media, communications and entertainment industries....

wrote a letter on 29 May 2007, to News International head of legal affairs Jon Chapman which said that they had
The letter from Mr Abramson to Mr Chapman makes no mention of whether the e-mails contain evidence of wrongdoing by journalists other than Mr Goodman

It has been reported that NI executives urged H&L to give them a clean bill of health in the strongest possible terms, that earlier draft letters by H&L were rejected by NI, and that lawyers on both sides seemed to struggle to find language that said the review had found no evidence of wrongdoing. This information was provided by "two people familiar with both the contents of the e-mails and the discussions between the executives and the law firm".

This letter was subsequently used by various News International executives in their defence during a parliamentary investigation into phone hacking in 2009.

In July 2011, Rupert Murdoch alleged in interview with The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

that H&L made "a major mistake" in its part in an internal investigation into phone-hacking at News International. On 18 July 2011, the H&L issued an open letter outlining its position, and appointed Luther Pendragon to handle PR issues relating to the affair. On 19 July, Lord MacDonald the former Director of Public Prosecutions engaged by News Corporation to review the emails handed to Harbottle & Lewis in 2007, said in evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee

Home Affairs Select Committee

The Home Affairs Select Committee is a Committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.-Remit:The Home Affairs Committee is one of the House of Commons Select Committees related to government departments: its terms of reference are to examine "the expenditure,...

:
At his appearance before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on 19 July, James Murdoch stated that News International had based its "push back" against new allegations on the combination of three pieces of evidence, and one of these was the previously submitted written advice from their then legal advisors H&L.

On 20 July, H&L issued a statement saying that they had asked News International to release them from their professional duty of confidentiality, which had been declined by News International. The company had since written to John Whittingdale

John Whittingdale

John Flasby Lawrance Whittingdale OBE, , is a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1992.-Education:...

MP, chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, asking to provide evidence to the committee.

On 21 July, News International authorised H&L to answer questions from the Metropolitan Police Service and parliamentary select committees in respect of what they were asked to do. Neil Rose, editor of legalfutures.co.uk, commented that the exact form of News International's waiver means H&L will not be able to declare its innocence, but only answer questions by the police or parliament.

On the 22 July, Tom Watson MP published a letter from the Solicitors Regulation Authority

Solicitors Regulation Authority

The Solicitors Regulation Authority was launched on 29 January 2007. It is the regulatory body for more than 120,000 solicitors in England and Wales...

, in response to his letter expressing concerns about Harbottle and Lewis's part in the phone-hacking affair. In the letter, Anthony Townsend, Chief Executive of the SRA said:
The Culture, Media and Sport Committee wrote to H&L on 29 July asking a series of detailed questions about the interaction between NI and H&L.

H&L replied to this request on 11 August. in what was described as “a withering attack on News International and the Murdochs”.

H&L said that it provided very narrow advice on whether the emails in question could be used to support Clive Goodman's allegations that his illegal activities were known about and supported by other employees at NOTW. They were not retained to provide NI with a "good conduct certificate” which they could show to parliament.

H&L state that the terms of terms of their contract with NI explicitly stated that their advice should not be disclosed to a third party without H&L’s prior written consent. They also state that if NI “had approached them (as it should have done) before presenting the letter to Parliament as evidence of its corporate innocence, H&L would not have agreed to this without further discussion”.

They also state that they could not have reported NI to the police even if they had found evidence of criminal activity in the emails, because of client confidentiality.

Their fee for the work was £10,294 + VAT. The letter suggests that this amount be compared with James Murdoch's evidence where he said that he had been told that the litigation costs in the Gordon Taylor and Max Clifford cases were expected to be between £500,000 and £1m.

Further UK investigations

The scandal has triggered multiple investigations from various governmental agencies looking at other News Corporation-owned media outlets in addition to News of the World.

With the unfolding scandal at the News of the World came allegations that another News Corporation-owned tabloid, The Sun, itself engaged in phone hacking. In February 2011, the Metropolitan Police investigated the claims of Scottish trade union leader Andy Gilchrist, who accused The Sun of hacking into his mobile phone in order to run negative stories about him; the stories were published shortly after Rebekah Brooks was installed as the paper's editor.

On 5 July 2011, the head of the Press Complaints Commission Baroness Buscombe said in interview with Andrew Neil

Andrew Neil

Andrew Ferguson Neil is a Scottish journalist and broadcaster.He currently works for the BBC, presenting the live political programmes The Daily Politics and This Week...

on the BBC programme The Daily Politics
The Daily Politics
The Daily Politics is a British television show launched by the BBC in 2003. Presented by Andrew Neil and Jo Coburn, the programme takes an in-depth and sometimes irreverent look at the daily goings on in Westminster and other areas across Britain and the world, and includes interviews with leading...

, that she had been lied to by the News of the World over phone hacking. Buscombe said that she did not know the extent of the scandal when she joined the PCC in 2009, but stated that she had been "misled by the News of the World" after she had previously concluded just the opposite. Buscome further admitted that her statement put out in 2009, when the PCC had reviewed the 2007 evidence, that "Having reviewed all the information available, we concluded that we were not materially misled;" was now in hindsight incorrect. This led to Labour leader Ed Milliband calling the PCC a "toothless poodle," and in agreement with Prime Minister David Cameron proposed the creation of a new press watchdog.

On 11 July, the day after the News of the World ceased publication, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

reported that Scotland Yard was investigating both The Sun and The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...

for illegally gaining access to the financial, phone, and legal records of former prime minister Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown

. It was also reported that The Sun improperly obtained medical information on Brown's infant son in order to publish stories about his diagnosis of cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis

Cystic fibrosis is a recessive genetic disease affecting most critically the lungs, and also the pancreas, liver, and intestine...

. Brown issued a statement saying that his family was "shocked by the level of criminality and the unethical means by which personal details have been obtained." On 22 July Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...

reported that sometime between 2001, and 2004, a BBC PR man for EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

had suspected his voicemail was being intercepted. The Eye said that the man's suspicions were confirmed when he had a friend leave a voicemail concerning a fake story about EastEnders, and that same evening received call from a Sun reporter declaring that they had "proof" of the fake story.

Leveson inquiry

On 6 July 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron

David Cameron

announced to parliament that a public government inquiry would convene to further investigate the affair. On 13 July, Cameron named Lord Justice Leveson

Brian Leveson

as chairman of the inquiry, with a remit to look into the specific claims about phone hacking at the News of the World, the initial police inquiry and allegations of illicit payments to police by the press, and a second inquiry to review the general culture and ethics of the British media.

On 20 July 2011, Cameron announced in a speech to Parliament the final terms of reference of Leveson's inquiry, stating that it will extend beyond newspapers to include broadcasters and social media

Social media

The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0,...

. He also announced a panel of six people who will work with the judge on the inquiry:

Sir David Bell
David Bell (publisher)
Sir David Charles Maurice Bell was Director for People at Pearson Group and was Chairman of the Financial Times until the end of 2009. He is married with three children.-Education:Sir David was educated at Worth School...

, former chairman of the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
Shami Chakrabarti
Shami Chakrabarti
Shami Chakrabarti CBE , has been the director of Liberty, a British pressure group, since September 2003. Chakrabarti is the Chancellor of Oxford Brookes University.-Early life:...

, director of Liberty
Liberty (pressure group)
Liberty is a pressure group based in the United Kingdom. Its formal name is the National Council for Civil Liberties . Founded in 1934 by Ronald Kidd and Sylvia Crowther-Smith , the group campaigns to protect civil liberties and promote human rights...
Lord Currie
David Currie, Baron Currie of Marylebone
David Anthony Currie, Baron Currie of Marylebone was the chairman of Ofcom and a member of the House of Lords under the title of Baron Currie of Marylebone, of Marylebone in the City of Westminster.Currie is also chairman of Semperian PPP Investment Partners and acts as an advisor to Unisys...

, former Ofcom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...

director
Elinor Goodman
Elinor Goodman
Elinor Mary Goodman is a UK journalist, best known as Political Editor of Channel 4 News from 1988 to 2005. She was educated at the Manor House School, an independent school in Surrey, England....

, former political editor of Channel 4 News
Channel 4 News
Channel 4 News is the news division of British television broadcaster Channel 4. It is produced by ITN, and has been in operation since the broadcaster's launch in 1982.-Channel 4 News:...
George Jones
George Jones (journalist)
George Jones is a journalist who is the former political editor of The Telegraph and a member of the Leveson Inquiry.-References:...

, former political editor of the Daily Telegraph
Sir Paul Scott-Lee QPM, former Chief Constable of West Midlands Police
West Midlands Police
West Midlands Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England.Covering an area with nearly 2.6 million inhabitants, which includes the cities of Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and also the Black Country; the force is made up...

It was subsequently reported in the media that Leveson had attended two parties in the prior 12 months at the London home of Matthew Freud

Matthew Freud

Matthew Freud is head of Freud Communications, an international public relations firm in the United Kingdom.-Biography:...

, a PR executive married to Elisabeth Murdoch

Elisabeth Murdoch

Elisabeth Murdoch may refer to:*Elisabeth Murdoch , mother of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch*Elisabeth Murdoch , daughter of Rupert and granddaughter of Dame Elisabeth...

, the daughter of Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch

Keith Rupert Murdoch, AC, KSG is an Australian-American business magnate. He is the founder and Chairman and CEO of , the world's second-largest media conglomerate....

.

On 14 September 2011, the Leveson Inquiry issued a press release providing details on the background, scope, and procedural plans for the inquiry. Part 1 of the inquiry would focus on ethical questions, specifically "the culture, practices and ethics of the press, including contacts between the press and politicians and the press and the police." Part 2 would focus on legal questions, specifically "the extent of unlawful or improper conduct within News International, other media organisations or other organisations. It will also consider the extent to which any relevant police force investigated allegations relating to News International, and whether the police received corrupt payments or were otherwise complicit in misconduct." Part 2 would not begin right away because of ongoing investigations by law enforcement organizations. The press release also named 46 celebrities, politicians, sportsmen, other public figures, and members of the public who may have been victims of media intrusion and who were granted "core participant" status in the inquiry. Core participants may, through their legal representatives, ask questions of witnesses giving oral evidence. Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive officer News International, requested but did not receive core participant status. The inquiry is scheduled to begin on the 14 November 2011.

Home Affairs Select Committee

The Home Affairs Select Committee

Home Affairs Select Committee

(HASC) has taken various forms of evidence and undertaking during the whole affair, and continues to investigate various aspects as part of its normal parliamentary undertakings.

On the afternoon of the 19 July 2011, the HASC took evidence from both holders of the position of the Director of Public Prosecutions, for the period which covered the scandal. Lord Macdonald, in charge of the Crown Prosecution Service when prosecution of Goodman and Mulcaire was undertaken, stated that he had only been alerted to the case due to the convention that the DPP is always notified of crimes involving the royal family. Committee member Mark Reckless

Mark Reckless

Mark John Reckless is a British Conservative Party politician who is the Member of Parliament for Rochester and Strood, elected at the 2010 general election....

, Conservative MP for Rochester and Strood, stated that the original 2007 police investigation and the 2009 review had both been hindered by the advice from the CPS, that "phone hacking was only an offence if messages had been intercepted before they were listened to by the intended recipient;" which was in fact incorrect. Current DPP Keir Starmer in evidence stated that the CPS had told the Metropolitan Police that "the RIPA legislation was untested." Mark Lewis, the solicitor acting for a number of phone hacking victims including the family of Milly Dowler, stated in evidence that he was sacked from his job when fellow partners at his law firm stated they no longer wished to pursue other victims' claims. Lewis stated that he, The Guardian newspaper, and Labour MP Chris Bryant had all been threatened to be sued by solicitors Carter-Ruck

Carter-Ruck

Carter-Ruck is a British law firm founded by Peter Carter-Ruck.According to their website they specialise in libel, privacy, international law and commercial litigation....

acting for AC John Yates, all the costs for which after the actions were dropped were picked up by the Metropolitan Police; Lewis submitted letters from Carter Ruck in evidence to the committee. In closing, Lewis stated that the reason for the investigation having taken so long was not only due to the Metropolitan Police: "The DPP seems to have got it wrong and needs to be helped out."

On 20 July 2011, the HASC published their completed report on the UK Parliament website. In that report, the Committee says:

Mark Lewis

Lewis, who is not connected with the Harbotte & Lewis firm, first engaged with News of the World in 2005 when it was moving to print a story asserting marital infidelity on Gordon Taylor's part. Lewis worked for George Davies Solicitors LLP in Manchester specializing in defamation cases and was able to persuade the paper not to run the story. In 2006, in the criminal trial over the hacking of royals' phones, it became public that the paper had also hacked, among others, Taylor's phone. In his "eureka

Eureka effect

The eureka effect is any sudden unexpected discovery, or the sudden realization of the solution to a problem, resulting in a eureka moment , also dubbed as "breakthrough thinking"...

moment", Lewis realized then that it was hacked information which had led to the earlier story about Taylor. From that insight came the realization that the paper had a potential civil liability from its hacking practices, and that led to Taylor's civil case. In 2011, working now with Taylor Hampton Solicitors in London, Lewis seems about to close a $4.7 million settlement in the Dowler case and has "more than 70 clients who believe News of the World illegally intercepted their cellphone voice mails", according to a Wall Street Journal story.

Media, Culture and Sport Select Commitee

The Culture, Media and Sport Committee spent 6 September 2011 questioning 4 witnesses: the News of the World’s former editor

Editor

The term editor may refer to:As a person who does editing:* Editor in chief, having final responsibility for a publication's operations and policies* Copy editing, making formatting changes and other improvements to text...

Colin Myler

Colin Myler is a British former newspaper editor.Myler grew up in Widnes in Cheshire. He started his career working for the Catholic Pictorial news agency in Southport, before joining The Sun and then the Daily Mail. He was appointed news editor of the Sunday People, then moved to Today in 1985,...

, News Group Newspapers’ former legal manager Tom Crone

Tom Crone

Tom Crone is a British barrister, last working for News International as Legal Affiars manager, before he resigned during the News International phone hacking scandal.-Career:...

, its former group human resources director, Daniel Cloke, and News International’s former director of legal affairs, Jonathan Chapman:.

Independent Police Complaints Commission

The Independent Police Complaints Commission

Independent Police Complaints Commission

The Independent Police Complaints Commission is a non-departmental public body in England and Wales responsible for overseeing the system for handling complaints made against police forces in England and Wales.-Role:...

has been charged or filed to perform various investigations. These presently include:

An investigation of the relationship between Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and Neil Wallis, and the Commissioner's stay at Champneys
Champneys
Champneys is the brand name of a destination spa group in the United Kingdom. Champneys Health Resorts Group own four spa resorts and has become one of the largest destination spa operators in the world...

health resort
An investigation into the conduct of Assistant Commissioner John Yates, with regards his review of the original investigation in 2009
An investigation into the conduct of Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, with regards his conduct within the original investigation in 2007
An investigation into the conduct of Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman
Andy Hayman
Andrew Christopher "Andy" Hayman, CBE, QPM is a retired British police officer and author of The Terrorist Hunters. Hayman held the rank of Chief Constable of Norfolk Constabulary and Assistant Commissioner for Specialist Operations at London's Metropolitan Police, the highest ranking officer...

, with regards his conduct within the original investigation in 2007
An investigation into Met Police head of PR Dick Fedorcio, his links with Neil Wallis, and the circumstances under which the Met awarded a contract to Wallis's media consultancy firm Chamy Media
An investigation of the employment of Neil Wallis's daughter Amy with the Metropolitan Police, alleged to have been at the request of John Yates

Elizabeth Filkin

On 18 July 2011, it was announced that former parliamentary commissioner for standards Elizabeth Filkin

Elizabeth Filkin

Elizabeth Filkin is a British civil servant. She was the United Kingdom's Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards between February 1999 and 2002...

would "recommend changes to links between the police and the media, including how to extend transparency."

Clive Goodman's 2007 letter

It was revealed that both John Whittingdale

John Whittingdale

John Flasby Lawrance Whittingdale OBE, , is a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1992.-Education:...

and Tom Watson may need to speak to James Murdoch again as the Commons culture select committee about recalling James Murdoch. An MP has released a letter from the now jailed journalist, alleging senior News of the World figures knew that the hacking scandal was going on, when the former royal editor, Clive Goodman

Clive Goodman

, wrote his letter to News International as he appealed against his dismissal in 2007.

"The News of the Worlds legal manager Tom Crone
Tom Crone
Tom Crone is a British barrister, last working for News International as Legal Affiars manager, before he resigned during the News International phone hacking scandal.-Career:...

attended virtually every meeting of my legal team and was given full access to the Crown Prosecution Service's evidence files." according to Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman is a former royal editor and reporter for the News of the World. He was arrested in August 2006 and jailed in January 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messages involving members of the Royal Household.Goodman initially worked as a journalist on Nigel Dempster's gossip column in the...

's letter.

Criticism of News International culture
The effect of the phone hacking scandal originating with the News of the World also raised wider questions about the ethics employed by companies under Murdoch's ownership, as well as the effects the scandal will have on the ethics employed specifically by print journalists and to some extent the wider world of journalism.

Murdoch had previously been criticised for building a media empire that lacked any ethical base and replacing responsible journalism with "gossip, sensationalism, and manufactured controversy." Karl Grossman

Karl Grossman

Karl Grossman is a full professor of journalism at the State University of New York College at Old Westbury. For more than 45 years he has pioneered the combination of investigative reporting and environmental journalism in a variety of media...

, a professor of journalism at State University of New York College at Old Westbury, accused Murdoch of building the most "dishonest, unprincipled and corrupt" media empire in history and of "making a travesty of what journalism is supposed to be about." Grossman also claimed that News Corporation changes the culture of their newly-acquired news outlets, using them to promote Murdoch's political and financial interests. Once-acclaimed newspapers such as the New York Post

New York Post

The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

, The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....

, and The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

have been accused of becoming an "instrument" to aide politicians that Murdoch favours.

In an analysis of the culture of the Murdoch empire in Newsweek

Newsweek

Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...

in July 2011, one of Murdoch's former top executives was quoted as saying: "This scandal and all its implications could not have happened anywhere else. Only in Murdoch's orbit. The hacking at News of the World was done on an industrial scale. More than anyone, Murdoch invented and established this culture in the newsroom, where you do whatever it takes to get the story, take no prisoners, destroy the competition, and the end will justify the means." This same executive went on to say, "In the end, what you sow is what you reap. Now Murdoch is a victim of the culture that he created. It is a logical conclusion, and it is his people at the top who encouraged lawbreaking and hacking phones and condoned it."

In 2010, it was also suggested that the journalistic approach of such newspapers at the News of the World had brought into public focus that there had been a shift away from the traditional ethics of journalism, raising serious questions about privacy, freedom of speech, and confidentiality. There were also observations in the North American Press about the ethics employed by the News of the World. NBC New York noted that the old journalistic maxim, "Get it first. But, first, get it right," although speaking for accurate reporting does not address the situation where in the case of the News of the World information was allegedly obtained in an unethical way or by illegal means. The approach was also criticised by Stephen B. Shepard

Stephen B. Shepard

Stephen B. Shepard is an American business journalist and academic who served as editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek magazine and was the founding dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism...

, dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism

CUNY Graduate School of Journalism

The City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism is a public graduate journalism school located in New York City. One of the 23 institutions comprising the City University of New York, or CUNY, the school opened in 2006...

, who commenting on the phone hacking scandal, said: "It's wrong. It's not a grey area. What they did was illegal and, even if it weren't, it's just plain wrong. There's no defence for it. Even the government needs a warrant to get into a house or a computer. You can't break into something like this and get away with it."

Impact on ethics of internet journalism

Rem Rieder, editor of the American Journalism Review

American Journalism Review

The American Journalism Review is a U.S. magazine covering topics in journalism. It is published six times a year by the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park. The AJR has been owned since the late 1980s by a foundation of the university...

, drew attention to the increased role the internet plays in society as part of the reason for the ethical problems in journalism, pointing out that "Journalism never sleeps in the fast-paced 24/7 online news culture." Laura Bazuik, a Canadian journalist, suggested that the News of the World controversy exemplified how the internet has caused a competitive, high-pressure environment to emerge in media and journalism, where errors and ethical issues in reporting bypass normal checks.

Ethical backlash

Prime Minister David Cameron

David Cameron

first intimated in early July 2011, that an investigation by Parliament

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

on media ethics and standards will be carried out. Soon after he announced that two independent enquiries, led by a senior judge would take place. This led to anxieties being expressed by newspaper editors about the impact of state media regulation on the free press. There was also concerns amongst journalists that new regulations would be enacted as a means of reining in the press—"an attack on the power of the press itself"—rather than more effective self regulation and ensuring a stricter enforcement of existing legislation to deter the use of phone hacking, breaches of privacy laws and bribery of public officials. A further major concern was expressed that more stringent regulation will not assist the ordinary people who were the subject of investigative journalism, whereas powerful corporations will still have the money, power, and resources to get out of any tough situation they might encounter.

The consequences of the exposure of ethical transgressions that occurred at News of the World have also led to concerns that such practices could be happening at other News Corporation titles in Britain. Furthermore there has been speculation that American news companies that are a part of Rupert Murdoch's media empire may have become implicated.

News Limited announces review

In light of News Corporations global review, John Hartigan, the CEO of News Corporation's Australian company News Limited

News Limited

News Limited is one of Australia's largest diversified media companies. The publicly listed company's interests span newspaper and magazine publishing, Internet, Pay TV, National Rugby League, market research, DVD and film distribution, and film and television production trading assets.News Limited...

, announced a review of all payments in the previous three years, and that he was personally willing to co-operate with any Australian Government led inquiry. The Australian Green party called for a parliamentary inquiry into News Limited, but Hartigan directly denied allegations by both the Greens and the governing Labor party that News Limited has been running a campaign against them, describing his group's journalism as "aggressive but fair."

Australian Government announces formal review

While the scope of the enquiry was yet to be finalized, a spokesman for the Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said that the current administration under the Labor Party had decided that an investigation was required.

News Limited chairman John Hartigan vowes full cooperation with the government inquiry.

United States

News Corporation owns a multitude of news outlets in the United States, including the New York Post

New York Post

, The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal

, and the Fox News Channel

Fox News Channel

Fox News Channel , often called Fox News, is a cable and satellite television news channel owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation...

. Several media critics have called for investigations into whether they too engaged in phone hacking activities. In addition to any possible illegal activities in the U.S., News Corporation and/or its executives might also face civil and criminal liability under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

.

Further controversy was aroused by an unsigned editorial in the News Corporation-owned Wall Street Journal which lashed out against News Corporation's critics, thereby specifically pointing fingers at the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

and news website ProPublica

ProPublica

ProPublica is a non-profit corporation based in New York City. It describes itself as an independent non-profit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. In 2010 it became the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize, for a piece written by one of its...

. At the same time, the editorial praised former publisher Les Hinton
Les Hinton
Leslie Frank "Les" Hinton is a British-American journalist and businessman. Hinton, born in the UK, became a United States citizen in 1986. He was appointed CEO of Dow Jones & Company in December 2007, after its acquisition by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation...

who had just resigned in the wake of the phone hacking scandal. Many observers were frustrated by the Wall Street Journals comments. Jay Rosen

Jay Rosen

Jay Rosen is a media critic, a writer, and a professor of journalism at New York University.Rosen has been on the journalism faculty at New York University since 1986; from 1999 to 2005 he served as chair of the Department.He has been one of the earliest advocates and supporters of citizen...

, professor of journalism at New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

, trenchantly criticized the "deluded dishonest whining victimology delivered in the form of a Wall Street Journal editorial on the phone hacking crisis". Sarah Ellison

Sarah Ellison

Sarah Ellison is an American writer and journalist and the author of War at the Wall Street Journal: Inside the Struggle To Control an American Business Empire . She previously spent ten years as a reporter at the Wall Street Journal in Paris, London, and New York...

of Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair (magazine)
Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...

commented: "Tonite's WSJ Editorial is sad. I've always defended the Edit page, but now It's a PR arm."

One of the two journalists who uncovered the Watergate scandal has said that he was "struck by the parallels" between the News of the World phone-hacking affair and the saga that brought down Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

in the 1970s.
Carl Bernstein

Carl Bernstein

Carl Bernstein is an American investigative journalist who, at The Washington Post, teamed up with Bob Woodward; the two did the majority of the most important news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to numerous government investigations, the indictment of a vast number of...

said that the two events were "shattering cultural moments of huge consequence that are going to be with us for generations" and that both were "about corruption at the highest levels, about the corruption of the process of a free society".
The American reporter, speaking at an event in London organised by the Guardian, specifically likened Rupert Murdoch, the NoW's proprietor, to the ousted US president in his relation to criminal acts and alleged criminal acts conducted by their respective employees and subordinates.

Timeline

Key events in the scandal to date:|event=A Culture, Media and Sport select committee report finds no evidence that News of the World editor Andy Coulson

Andy Coulson

knew of phone hacking taking place at his publication. It does however say it is "inconceivable" that no one apart from royal editor Clive Goodman was aware of it.}} |event=The Guardian reports that publicist Max Clifford

Max Clifford

Maxwell Frank Clifford is an English publicist, considered the highest-profile and best-known publicist in the United Kingdom...

was paid £1 million to drop legal action that could have revealed more News of the World reporters hacked phones.}}|event=The New York Times quotes Sean Hoare, a former News of the World reporter, as claiming phone hacking was encouraged at the tabloid; he also tells the BBC that phone hacking was "endemic" at the paper and that Coulson asked him to do it. Paul McMullan, another former journalist at the News of the World, claims that other illegal reporting techniques were widespread.}}|event=The News of the World suspends assistant news editor Ian Edmondson

Ian Edmondson

over hacking allegations. Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire

Glenn Mulcaire

claimed Edmonson commissioned him to hack phones.}} |event=Edmondson, journalist James Weatherup

James Weatherup

and senior reporter Neville Thurlbeck are all arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and unlawfully accessing voicemail messages.}} |event=June 2011 – Several claimants, including actress Sienna Miller and football pundit Andy Gray, receive damage awards from the News of the World.}} |event=The Guardian reports that the voicemail of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler was hacked by the News of the World. Rebekah Brooks was editor of the tabloid at the time but said it is "inconceivable" that she knew of the activity. Subsequent revelations include those suggesting relatives of British soldiers killed in action and victims and relatives of the 7/7 attack

7 July 2005 London bombings

The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....

victims were also hacked.}} |event=Prime Minister David Cameron

David Cameron

announces government inquiry into the unfolding scandal.}}|event=News International announce the closure of the News of the World, with the last edition to be published on 10 July.}}|event=Andy Coulson is arrested over alleged phone hacking and making illegal payments to police. Clive Goodman is also arrested on suspicion of making illegal payments to police.}}|event=The Guardian reports two other News Corporation outlets may have illegally accessed records of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown

.}} |event=BSkyB takeover withdrawn by News Corporation.}}|event=Former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis arrested.}} |event=Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, and Les Hinton

Les Hinton

, chief executive of Dow Jones & Company, both resign.}}|event=Brooks arrested over corruption and phone hacking. Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson resigns.}}|event=David Cameron postpones parliamentary recess by one day. John Yates resigns as assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Former News of the World reporter and the first to allege phone hacking at the publication, Sean Hoare

Sean Hoare

Sean Hoare was a British entertainment journalist. He contributed to articles on show business, from actors to reality television stars...

, is found dead at his home in Hertfordshire. Theresa May tells the House of Commons she has launched an inquiry into malpractices and alleged corruption within the Police.}}|event=Brooks, Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch appeared before the parliamentary media committee in London for questioning.}}|event=Parliament committee report released, Cameron appeared in parliament and at 1922 Committee

1922 Committee

In British politics, the 1922 Committee is a committee of Conservative Members of Parliament. Voting membership is limited to backbench MPs although frontbench Conservative MPs have an open invitation to attend meetings. While the party was in opposition, frontbench MPs other than the party leader...

.}}|event= Matt Nixson dismissed as features editor of The Sun newspaper.}} |event=The Solicitors Regulation Authority

Solicitors Regulation Authority

The Solicitors Regulation Authority was launched on 29 January 2007. It is the regulatory body for more than 120,000 solicitors in England and Wales...

announced an investigation into Harbottle & Lewis, the former solicitors of News International.}} |event=Former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner arrested.}}|event=Former News of the World news editor Greg Miskiw arrested.}}|event=Director of public affairs and internal communication for the Metropolitan Police, Dick Fedorcio, put on extended leave.}} |event=The Guardian publishes a letter by Goodman that implicates senior staffers at the News of the World, including Coulson, in extensively discussing and covering-up phone hacking.}} |event=Former News of the World US editor James Desborough arrested.}} |event=The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

Glenn Mulcaire suing News International. A private investigator jailed over phone hacking

Phone hacking

is taking legal action against News International, the company confirmed today.}}|event=Former News of the World reporter Dan Evans arrested.}} |event=(week of) News Corporation subsidiary Wireless Generation loses New York State contract for education information system provision.}} |event=Former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner re-arrested and bailed until a date in September 2011.}} |event=Arrest of a 30 year old man, whom The Guardian identified as Ross Hall, a former reporter for News of the World who wrote under the pen name of Ross Hindley.}}|event=Daniel Cloke, Jonathan Chapman, Colin Myler and Tom Crone are questioned by the Committee for Media, Culture and Sports.}} Leveson inquiry has first hearing. |event=Deputy football editor of The Times, Raoul Simons, arrested.}} |event=Australian Government announces formal inquiry into behaviour of the Australian media.}} |event=Culture, Media and Sport Committee decide to recall James Murdoch and Les Hinton for further questioning.}}. The Leveson Inquiry provides background, scope, and procedural plans for the inquiry. |event=James Murdoch

James Murdoch

James Murdoch is the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation.James Murdoch may also refer to:* James Murdoch , Irish Baptist College lecturer and former Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland pastor-teacher...

appears before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee.}} |event=Leveson inquiry receives witness testimony from the family of Milly Dowler, solicitor Graham Shear, writer Joan Smith and Hugh Grant

Hugh Grant

}}

External links

Phone Hacking Scandal collected news and commentary at BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
News of the World Phone Hacking collected news and commentary at The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
Full Q&A On The Phone Hacking Scandal, Sky News
Sky News
Sky News is a 24-hour British and international satellite television news broadcaster with an emphasis on UK and international news stories.The service places emphasis on rolling news, including the latest breaking news. Sky News also hosts localised versions of the channel in Australia and in New...

, 5 July 2011
Hacking scandal: is this Britain's Watergate?, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

, 9 July 2011
Hacked off official campaign website

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Background

2005–2006: Royal phone hacking scandal

Information Commissioner's report

2009–2011: Renewed investigations

Operation Weeting begins

Apology and compensation

Arrest of James Weatherup

Milly Dowler's voicemail

British soldiers' relatives

7/7 London attack victims

Sara Payne

Other victims

Coulson's second resignation

Closure of the News of the World

BSkyB takeover bid withdrawn

New York State contract lost by subsidiary of News Corporation

Resignations

Dismissals

Leaves/Suspensions

Cautions

Apologies

Andy Coulson

Neil Wallis

Rebekah Brooks

Stuart Kuttner, Greg Miskiw, James Desborough, Dan Evans and others

Murdochs and Brooks summonsed to Parliament

Reaction

News Corporation's management standards committee

Death of Sean Hoare

Daily Mirror allegations

Harbottle and Lewis

Further UK investigations

Leveson inquiry

Home Affairs Select Committee

Mark Lewis

Media, Culture and Sport Select Commitee

Independent Police Complaints Commission

Elizabeth Filkin

Clive Goodman's 2007 letter

Criticism of News International culture

Impact on ethics of internet journalism

Ethical backlash

News Limited announces review

Australian Government announces formal review

United States

Timeline

See also

External links